Steady amid chaos, Olson a reliable, flexible option for Tigers

CLEVELAND -- Pitching chaos has become the theme for the Detroit Tigers’ 2024 postseason run. But even in the chaos, there was some planned stability.

As the first inning of the Tigers' 7-0 loss in Game 1 of the American League Division Series unraveled on Saturday afternoon, Reese Olson was already warming up in the Tigers' bullpen. Earlier in the day, Detroit manager A.J. Hinch told the 25-year-old that he needed to be ready to face Guardians outfielder Lane Thomas, batting fifth, whenever that may be.

It came sooner than expected. Tigers opener Tyler Holton failed to record an out -- though not all his fault -- and Olson entered the game with runners on the corners to face Thomas. It was the first time in his big league career that Olson entered with runners on base. He had only three career relief appearances between 2023-24.

“Coming into a situation like that, there’s lot of juice,” Olson said. “It is fun, but feel like I did a pretty good job of calming myself down and trying to make pitches. I was prepared.”

But on the first pitch, Olson hung a slider middle-middle. Thomas launched it 394 feet into the left-field stands, extending Cleveland’s lead to 5-0 at the time.

“No hesitation,” Hinch said of calling on him in that situation. “We told him early in the day that the Lane Thomas at-bat was going to be it. And if you look at the next two Lane Thomas at-bats [strikeout swinging and flyout to center], that was a little more what we drew up. Sometimes their guy beats our guy. Reese was ready. No excuses. We've been doing this with virtually our entire roster.

“When it doesn't work, you wonder. But we can't -- you know, we can't fault, really, anybody other than a good swing on a pitch that changed the game, or separated the game for them and a punch that we didn't recover from.”

But all things considered, Olson did everything the Tigers asked of him. After that one mistake, he cruised throughout the rest of his outing. He completed five innings, allowing the lone run on the Thomas homer. He kept the game right where it was.

Maybe more importantly, he filled a lot of innings to save the bullpen as the Tigers' offense was unable to chip away.

“I gotta call a better pitch than that one,” said catcher Jake Rogers. “It got hit far, and tip of the cap to him for being ready for it. It looked like he sat on it and hit it a long ways. But [Olson was] huge. It was huge for him to eat innings like that. He had one tough pitch, but other than that, I think he did really well. He got through the lineup and ate some innings up for us, luckily, like he always does. He just had one bad pitch.”

Olson said he is ready whenever the Tigers need him again. If things go according to plan, that could be for a potential Game 4, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he comes out of the bullpen again sooner than that.

Whenever that is, the Tigers are ready for it.

“We believe in Reese Olson,” Hinch said. “We know he's a good pitcher, and he's allowed to make a mistake here and there. We're going to turn to him again and look forward to the next time that he pitches. I think he demonstrated exactly the reason that we wanted the ball in his hand, even at the most critical time. He's nasty. He's got good stuff. He's got great demeanor. He can make adjustments. He's calm. Nothing is too big for him.

“That was all on display, and despite the first pitch that he threw on the day, I was very proud of how he threw the ball.”